What consoles did you buy or acquire new upon initial release?

[Diatribal Deity]

So over the years I have owned many consoles, but upon careful reflection there are actually only a few that I either purchased or was gifted new upon initial release (within 6 months of launch). These were...

- Colecovision (gift)
- NES with ROB
- Sega CD (had to wait a few months because it was backordered)
- Xbox (provided by Microsoft before launch)
- Nintendo DS (provided by Nintendo before launch)

Wow! That is it! And I call myself an enthusiast...

[RPG_Fanatic]

Consoles I've bought at launch are

SNES
Sega CD
3D0
Sega Saturn
Playstation
Nintendo 64
Sega Dreamcast
Game Boy Advanced SP
PSP
Xbox 360 (3 months after, I couldn't find one)
Playstation 3
DSi

[Nebagram]

First one I got at launch was the Dreamcast (if you count 'Christmas after launch' as 'at launch'). After that, GBA, Gamecube, DS, PSP, 360 and Wii. The rest were all second-hand or new long after launch (including my PS3- took some advantage there of those trying to make a profit on ebay and got near as makes no difference £100 off the launch price).

[Baloo]

Dreamcast
Nintendo 64

[Lerxstnj]

Only one on release day... The Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition Xbox 360 in March of this year. I did not pre-order & got the only one they had at my local GameStop. All my others were bought about 1 or 2 generations later, except for Colecovision & Atari 5200 which were bought shortly after launch in the 80's.

[FantasiaWHT]

Wii, and that's it.

Although my wife got me the Gamecube for Christmas real close to launch

[Deadman]

Let's see:

Atari 2600 - got as a gift for Christmas 1979, not sure when launch was, I think it was earlier - like 77.
Vectrex - Christmas gift in 1982, I think launch was earlier that fall
Dreamcast - picked up at launch, when I could find it
GBA SP - red one at launch for my son
GBA SP Pikachu TRU exclusive edition - when it showed up in stores, grabbed one for my son for Xmas
Nintendo DS - grabbed a black one as soon as I could find it
Xbox - got it within a day or two of launch
Xbox 360 - bought within hours of launch

That's probably about it.

[Mobius]

Hm, not as many as I thought. These were all on launch day:

Nintendo 64
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
GameCube
Game Boy Advance
Wii

And:

Xbox - Christmas a month after launch

I think I'm done buying launch systems, though. I haven't really kept up with new releases since the Wii launch, so I'm a few years behind now. (For example, what's all this hype about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 breaking sales records? I didn't know it was coming out, and only even vaguely heard of the original.) I'd rather stay a few years behind and buy my hardware and games for way cheaper!

But that said, I will be buying New Super Mario Bros. Wii tomorrow...


Edit: Oh wait, I also bought a GBA SP at launch.

[duffmanth]

The only consoles I bought within 6 months of launch were the PS2 and PSP. I walked into my local Walmart in January/2001 when the PS2 was still hard to find and spent $520 CDN on it after taxes! The damn thing didn't even last 3 months before is started giving me issues, but the luckily the replacement one I still have and play to this day. I bought the original PSP for $320 CDN after taxes in the summer of 2005 when it came with all of those accessories, which was a pretty good deal at the time I guess?

I was all set to buy the PS3 at launch, but between it being so hard to find and the high price (about $770 CDN after taxes at the time) I decided to wait, and I'm glad I did. I walked into my local Gamestop (EBgames in Canada) in December/2007 and they had one 60GB left for $480 CDN, so I picked it up right away. Unfortunately in the 80's and early 90's I was a little too young to be able to afford to pick up systems at launch.

[phreakindee]

Well I have never bought on launch for myself, and only in the past year or two started even buying games at launch... But come next gen, I will be!

When the PS3 came out, me and some friends who worked at Target camped outside of our store that night. And I got hooked, so much freaking fun! Talking with other gamers, random passersby, and the news crews... A few drinks and ladies later and we stumbled inside and got our PS3s. And sold them on eBay for almost 3 times the amount. Now, I'm not proud of scalping, but hey. College kids do what they do. But the experience was amazingly awesome. Did it again with the Wii.
And I will be out there again next console launch. As much as I don't want the next gen anytime soon, I do because its just such stupid fun. Maybe with Natal and Sphere coming out...

[betamax001]

I got the GBA about 2 weeks after launch for my birthday. I got Rayman Advance and Super Mario Advance. That was a fun day : D I ordered the Rock Band Bundle PSP for my birthday about 10 days after it came out. I ordered it from Amazon because i wouldnt have to pay taxes or shipping.

[MeTmKnice]

Ps2, Wii, PS3 .. granted I sold them all for a lot of money, but I still bought em on launch day.

[Marriott_Guy]

I have purchased many consoles close to their release date, but the only system I acquired on it's launch day was the Panasonic 3DO. I remember being quite nervous standing outside my local Electronics Boutique store that day. I did not have a great deal of discretionary cash at that time, but I ended up taking the plunge anyway for $699 (plus tax).

Wow... great system (still one of my favorites for whatever reason), but if I had waited a little longer I could have had it for 1/3 that price.

[j_factor]

The only game system I've ever attempted to purchase at launch day was the Wii. Unfortunately I was 44th in line at a store that received a measely 39 systems, but I got it one week later by waiting in line at Best Buy for their second shipment.

I got a Game Boy Color for my birthday in 1999, which was almost exactly 6 months after its launch. I didn't put too much significance on it though, as I didn't really think of it as a new system, I thought of it as an upgraded version of the Game Boy.

I got a Neo Geo Pocket Color very close to its launch. I remember that it was exclusively available at eToys.com for like two weeks, but I don't remember if it had a firm "launch date" for being available in stores. If it did, I got it shortly after, not on that day.

I got a Game Boy Advance for Christmas 2001, a bit over six months after the launch. Within a week I went out and bought a "light shield" accessory which was unsatisfying.

I got a Sega Saturn in December of 1995, three and a half months after its official launch, but it was actually a used system.

Technically I got a Turbo Duo very soon after it was made available, but that wasn't a new system, and I traded in my Turbografx and CD unit towards it (so it wasn't even new to me). I think the Super System 3.0 card was made available at the same time as the Duo, so you could say that I got a Super CD right after its "launch".

The only other systems that I bought within even a year of launch were Xbox and DS. With most systems, I've waited.

[BetaWolf47]

Within 6 months of release:

N64
Gamecube
Wii
DS
DS Lite (Mario edition)
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance SP

Gah, that's it. I didn't get an NES until way late in its life.